A former Penn State workforce physician alleges that coach James Franklin tried to intervene with medical selections involving gamers on the workforce, in accordance with testimony obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Dr. Pete Seidenberg, the first care physician for Penn State’s soccer workforce in 2014, claimed throughout a civil trial in opposition to Franklin and the college that he was pushed by Franklin and athletic director Sandy Barbour to medically disqualify a participant who tried suicide in an effort to unencumber a scholarship. The unidentified participant was in short-term psychiatric care. 

“I perceived that as his try and affect medical selections,” Seidenberg stated. 

Seidenberg added that he declined to provide into the strain from Franklin and Barbour. He included different situations during which he thought Franklin overstepped in attempting to get his manner on medical selections, involving each himself and former director of athletic drugs Dr. Scott Lynch. The lawsuit was filed by Lynch, who alleges his unwillingness to associate with Franklin’s needs performed a key position in his termination in March 2019. 

Seidenberg now not works at Penn State and practices drugs outdoors of Pennsylvania. 

Lynch filed the lawsuit months after his dismissal and revised the grievance in 2021. Franklin himself was eliminated as a defendant in 2020 as a consequence of statute of limitations, so the lawsuit is directed at Penn State’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Heart and Dr. Kevin Black, who gave his dismissal. 

Franklin has been at Penn State since 2014 with an 88-39 total document. In 2023, he signed a 10-year assured contract that can pay him greater than $70 million.